Golf in the Cayman Islands
Sometimes, a good golfing opportunity shows up in the most unexpected places.
The Cayman Islands are not known as a golf destination and, for a time in 2004, were not known as any kind of destination at all after Hurricane Ivan washed over Grand Cayman.
So, with the Super Bowl in Miami, less than 90 minutes away by air, it seemed an appropriate time to check out how the island had rebounded. By coincidence, this month, February, just happened to mark the full re-opening of Grand Cayman’s only 18-hole regulation course, Safehaven.
The signs of reconstruction are still evident all over the island. But both Safehaven and the nearby Britannia Golf Club have been rebuilt, are ready for play, and are different enough that they can provide several days of play with little seeming repetition.
Grand Cayman is known principally as a diving destination for the clear, blue waters that surround it. It’s also known as an offshore banking haven with a reputation for money laundering. But the island also proves that, while it’s nice to play at a golf destination, you needn’t just eliminate other places out of hand.
Brittania is particularly unique.
Its golf operations manager, James Sheddan, is a diehard Dallas Cowboys’ fan, and the course was Jack Nicklaus’ first design in the Caribbean. It’s also one of the most unique layouts anywhere – playing as a regulation 9-hole course five days a week and as an “executive,” 18-hole course on the other two days.
You read that right, and it was all squeezed into a tight, 37 acre landscape. The course plays about 2,900 yards as a 9-hole, par-35 or 5,800 yards as an 18-hole, par-70, using a slightly different set of tees. Then, two days a week, additional greens and tees are opened along the fairways, making it a 2,759-yard, par-57 executive course.
All the extra greens and tees fit so naturally into the landscape they appear to be simply part of the fairways.
“Unless you are looking for them, you wouldn’t know they were there,” said Dave Johnson, the golf pro.
He’s right.
Nicklaus made imaginative use of a small swath of land. The course is tight with most of the holes separated by a series of mounds that lead to semi-blind shots and tight angles.
Of course, the design job was no more difficult than the reconstruction job following Ivan, which left the entire island submerged for a day and brought water more than five feet high through the pro shop and course. Sheddan estimates it has cost about $1.8 million above normal maintenance costs to bring the course back, and play slowly is approaching its former levels.
“Our biggest problem (after the storm) was the fact we had no irrigation system,” Sheddan said. Kind of ironic, since for a time the course had more irrigation than it ever wanted. But hand maintenance worked the trick. It was 18 months before electricity was restored to the clubhouse.
Water comes into play on five of the nine holes, or 10 of 18 if the course is played twice for a regulation round.
The two courses-in-one routine is not all that separates Brittania from Safehaven. Brittania estimates it gets perhaps two-thirds of its annual play from tourists visiting on cruise ships. At Safehaven, the figures are reversed, according to Davy Ebanks, the project manager.
Safehaven reopened its back nine a few months ago; with the front nine now opening in February, the course will be 18 holes again. But it’s a walking-only facility at least temporarily because the cart paths have not been rebuilt and there are still some issues with power for a fleet of motorized carts. For some, that walk can prove a burden in the climate, although I made it without much difficulty, playing the back nine twice, and played much better the second time around than the first time.
This is a more traditional layout, not just because it is 18 holes, but because the architects had land to work with to make it so. It stretches to 6,605 yards from the championship tees, and that’s plenty with the variable winds that crisscross the course, located between two bays of water in the middle of Grand Cayman island.
Water comes into play on 13 of the 18 holes. The holes are all different; the par-3s are challenging, and there’s a par-5 finishing hole around a lake that a gambling, long bomber can at least try to reach in two.
Ivan hit Safehaven even harder than Brittania, in part because of its location; a wind shift caught the course in the middle and water came from both directions, eventually reaching a depth of about 10 feet in the pro shop. It was more than two years before nine holes were ready for play.
The job ate up between $3 million and $4 million, Ebanks said, but as part of the makeover, a salt-tolerant grass was used, “So, if it ever happens again, we wouldn’t have a total wipeout,” Ebanks said.
It wasn’t only the golf course that got caught; Safehaven also includes a 48-unit condominium complex, most of which also was wiped out and is being rebuilt. “It was certainly the most dramatic thing I’ve seen in my 50 years on the island,” Ebanks said.
Full recovery apparently will continue for some time. Work remains at parts of the airport and on the roads, but the tourist infrastructure is in place. I also can attest that, while Grand Cayman is far from a bargain destination, it not only has this good golf, but also has a series of absolutely, first-class dining establishments at the edge of the water that are just delightful.
Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football league for three decades and has covered dozens of major golf championships. He is the national columnist for The Sports Xchange and his blog can be viewed at www.mysportspage.com.
